Doing my best while my grade-schooler is fighting a nasty childhood cancer called neuroblastoma.

We've met the most wonderful, generous people. We've seen the best side of our friends and family. We've been disappointed, depressed and terrified. This journey has been a terrible blessing.

Sunday, May 28, 2006

Beautiful is as beautiful does

We made brownies!

What could be more beautiful than two little girls with their faces covered in brownie batter?

Another trip to CHEO this week. I try so hard not to be a psycho mom. I try not to make things difficult for the wonderful people who work with sick children. But next time I’ll speak up.

The visit this week was for a bone scan. For you and me, a bone scan is a simple thing—get an intravenous injection and come back a few hours later, stay still on the little table while the machine whirs around you for about 40 minutes and you’re done. When you’re almost two, it’s not quite that simple. For Georgia, the intravenous injection went fine. It’s the staying still part that’s the deal breaker for her.

So, they sedate her—with chloral hydrate (anyone know how to make that stuff taste better?). The senior nurse and I agreed on a time for sedation—and the younger nurse brought the medication in 30 minutes early, then left the room. She left my little angel and I facing each other over a syringe full of pink syrup that looks like it should taste like strawberries or bubblegum or something. The first swallow went fine—she hadn’t had any breakfast, the little dear. However, after that first taste, she put up a fight worthy of the great white whale and the giant squid. Finally, I had to resort to soother-napping to get her to open her mouth for me. I almost wonder if the nurses weren’t hiding behind the door watching and laughing. We both ended up covered in the sticky stuff, and I think I swallowed almost as much of it as Georgia did (the this-stuff-doesn’t-taste-that-bad ploy didn’t work).

After I calmed her down, she played with the buttons on the television for about 15 minutes and then she had a nap. A lovely, peaceful rest.

The sedation lasted until we reached the nuclear medicine department. Then, she tried to sit up (like a little drunk) and that, as they say, was that. No more sleepies. Not even a top-up dose of medication could give the desired result.

The solution? We hold her still, two minutes at a time, as the machine does the scan. Now, she was very good (still a bit sedated), especially when they were doing the skull scan and she had to stay still with the scanning surface up against her nose.

But next time, I’ll know—don’t let the sedation be rushed. Follow my instincts. Play it cool. Sneak up on her with the syringe, and steal her soother.

1 comment:

You have probably received this message a month ago, but we still need your help. Can you help us with our cancer blog survey? We are posting the original message again. Can you encourage visitors to complete the survey and make the survey link visible on your homepage? You are also welcome to participate in our study. For those of you who have already participated, we deeply appreciate your help. Thanks in advance!

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